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Have you outlined your HR resolutions for the upcoming year? If you are looking to foster a corporate culture that is conducive to employee retention, we have a few resolutions that could help you with your objective.

 

1. Improve communication between management and employees

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This year commit to reducing barriers that exist between supervisors and employees and, in turn, make discussions easier and simplify communication.

Communication. It’s your first HR resolution. It’s a common issue for many companies. As a human resource professional, you work alongside managers and employees. This means you understand both realities, so you can act as an intermediary to facilitate lines of communication between the two parties. Here are a few tips on how to improve communication in your organization:

  • Talk to employees regularly to build their trust and understand their realities. Same goes for management.
  • Be transparent. Feel free to share business strategies and upcoming projects with employees when you have the chance (and management is open to the idea).
  • Schedule meetings on a regular basis to communicate any major news relating to the company.
  • Clarify the company’s mission, vision and values so that employees have a better understanding of decisions being made by management.
  • Implement one single system for all communications. For some companies, this could be email, for others, you may need a chat system (SlackMicrosoft Teams, etc.) and lastly, you can use a bulletin board if your company’s employees don’t all have access to a computer. Find a realistic means of communication for your organization based on your employees’ profiles and the company’s activities.

 

2. Let what surrounds you inspire you to innovate

inspiration

This year draw your inspiration from outside the HR field.

It goes without saying that it’s tempting to innovate by drawing your inspiration from other human resources initiatives at competing companies. This is a great idea if they can be applied to your company’s reality. On the other hand, if one of your HR resolutions for the year is to think outside of the box, then why not draw your inspiration from…absolutely everything! Here are a few examples:

  • I got the idea to do a job description in song one evening while singing a lullaby to my child.
  • I was inspired to create a candidate persona after creating a persona for one of our marketing clients.
  • Speed dating gave me the idea to help employees get to know each other better.

 

You can use any opportunity to stimulate your creativity and imagination. All you have to do is be on the lookout everywhere you go and in everything you do!

 

3. Collect data from your HR software and analyze it!

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A New Year’s resolution that will definitely pay off is spending more time analyzing the data you accumulate and then using it strategically.

More and more companies are supplying themselves with HR software and an ATS (an applicant tracking system). If you don’t yet have HR software, one of your resolutions should be to think about getting one right away! Entering data into these web solutions will help keep your employee records secure, but if you really want to maximize their use, you need to analyze the data!

When it comes to HR software, you will have easy access to:

  • Employee turnover rate
  • Total payroll evolution
  • The average number of years of experience and seniority in the company
  • Summaries and results of the most recent staff evaluations
  • Monitor training activities
  • Many other useful statistics

All of this data can help you better understand your employees, how to communicate with them and increase their sense of belonging in order to foster their loyalty.

This information is also helpful when supplying management with critical information so that you can support them in their strategic plans. By analyzing this data and offering concrete solutions to the company’s issues, you will gain more credibility with management and have more influence on the organization’s future.

 

4. Get started on major projects today

maintenant

Don’t delay the longer, more challenging projects. Commit to starting them, one step at a time.

It’s always tempting to carry out small projects that you can achieve quickly. Although those smaller things are also essential, it’s even more advantageous to tackle big projects: a complete redesign of the company’s compensation plan, reviewing the performance evaluation process, training and succession planning, creating an employee manual, and more.

These projects can seem intimidating, so the best way to proceed is to split them into smaller tasks.  Let’s take the example of creating an employee manual:

  • You can start by deciding on a format (online, paper), which documents will be included, who will write one or more sections, how the information will be displayed, in which language it will be written (informal, formal), etc.
  • Then you can search for documents that you already have and determine what’s missing.
  • Proceed to writing the manual’s content.
  • Think about how you plan to disseminate the content. How will you present it to employees? How will you simplify its use?

You can divide the employee manual project into 4 distinct parts: strategic thinking, research, writing, and communication. All you have to do is set a realistic deadline based on your other projects and the management team’s expectations. If one of your HR resolutions is to divide large projects into small tasks, you will have the feeling that you’re progressing and will be much less intimidated by the scope of your initiatives.

 

5. Ask for help from an outside resource if necessary

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Asking for help doesn’t show weakness on your part. It shows a willingness to truly help the company by finding qualified experts to achieve your objectives.

If you are new to the company, or if you’re on a quest to gain credibility with management, you may want to undertake some projects on your own to prove your added value.

That being said, because human resources management is a very broad field, it’s impossible for you to be an expert in everything, with the same level of interest and skills. One of your HR resolutions is to ask for help when you get stuck on one of your initiatives.

You can ask for help from a colleague, an HR professional in your network, or even hire an HR consultant.

 

Lastly, having HR resolutions is excellent, but achieving and maintaining them is even better! Don’t lose sight of your commitments and don’t hesitate to find the resolutions that are best suited to your company’s reality.